![CORRECTION / Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. Heavy fighting was raging near Al-Shifa hospital, with Israel saying it had killed dozens of militants and destroyed tunnels that are key to Hamas's capacity to fight. Israel launched an offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters poured across the heavily militarised border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages. (Photo by AFP) / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Removing Byline]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require." (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)](https://wp.inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SEI_180040659-1.jpg?resize=640,360&strip=all&quality=90)
Patients, medical staff and Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza have left the territory’s largest hospital after it was taken over by Israeli forces.
Palestinian officials and the Israeli military offered conflicting versions about what prompted the mass exodus from al-Shifa Hospital.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said it had been asked by the hospital’s director to help those who would like to leave do so by a secure route.
The military said it did not order any evacuation, and that medical personnel were being allowed to remain in the hospital to support patients who cannot be moved.
But Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said the military had ordered the facility cleared, giving the hospital an hour to get people out.
Meanwhile, the IDF has said it is investigating after unconfirmed reports of scores of deaths at UN-run schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza.
The attacks, which Hamas-controlled health authorities have blamed on Israel, reportedly took place at al Fakhoura and Tal al Zaatar schools.
IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told the BBC: “I can’t confirm this incident is IDF, but we are seeing the images like you on social media. We are looking into it.”
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), tweeted: “Receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another@UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop. A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer.”
Israeli air strikes on residential blocks in south Gaza killed at least 47 Palestinians on Saturday, medics said.
Israel’s military has been searching the al-Shifa hospital for traces of a Hamas command centre that it alleges was located under the building – a claim Hamas and the hospital staff deny – and urging the several thousand people still there to leave.
After it appeared the evacuation was mostly complete, Dr Ahmed Mokhallalati, a Shifa physician, said on social media that there were some 120 patients remaining who were unable to leave, including some in intensive care and premature babies, and that he and five other doctors were staying behind to care for them.
It was not immediately clear where those who left the hospital had gone, with 25 of Gaza’s hospitals non-functional due to lack of fuel, damage and other problems and the other 11 only partially operational, according to the World Health Organisation.
Israel has said hospitals in northern Gaza were a key target of its ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, claiming they were used as militant command centres and weapons depots, which both Hamas and medical staff deny.
Israeli troops have encircled or entered several hospitals, while others stopped functioning because of dwindling supplies and loss of electricity.
Since occupying Shifa, Israel has been facing pressure to prove its claim Hamas set up its main command centre in and under the hospital.
So far, Israel has shown photos and video of weapons caches that it says were found inside, as well as what it said was a tunnel entrance.
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communication coordinator for ActionAid Palestine, said: “We are appalled by reports that doctors and critically ill patients – including premature babies in incubators – are being forced out at gunpoint by the Israeli military.
“This morning we have seen chilling scenes of doctors taking patients in critical conditions on beds and wheelchairs out of Al-Shifa hospital – a death sentence for hundreds of people who will be forced to leave behind lifesaving care and travel miles to hospitals that are no longer operational.”
Defense minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s forces have begun operating in eastern Gaza City while continuing its mission in western areas. “With every passing day, there are fewer places where Hamas terrorists can operate,” he said, adding that the militants would learn that in southern Gaza “in the coming days.”
His comments were the clearest indication yet that the military plans to expand its offensive to southern Gaza, where Israel had told Palestinian civilians to flee early in the war. The evacuation zone is already crammed with displaced civilians, and it was not clear where they would go if the offensive moves closer.
The war, now in its seventh week, was triggered by Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on 7 October when terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted around 240 men, women and children.
More than 11,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities.
Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble.
The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.
